Resolution, transparecy, dynamics, tonality, coherence and ability to reach out and draw you emotionally into the music.

Nothing at all, really.

This is review of Guarneri Memento. When I first received my Memento, I heard its magic right away. On large-scale orchestral Memento produces extra vigor, very good control and amazing bass heft. The bass is quick, tuneful and wholly continuous with the rendering of the higher frequencies. It is superior to what I have heard from any other two-way loudspeaker. From the subtle vocal modulations of jazz singers to the symphonic complexities of different composers, Memento's simply "get it right" — in scale, in tonality, and most importantly in the ability to reach out and draw you emotionally into the music. The purity and beauty these speakers deliver make them worth strong consideration from any highly discerning listener who values musical truth over audio dazzle.

The new Memento deserves a big applause - for statement-level performance; for being built like nothing I have seen before; and hence, for practicing the spirit of the music. I can offer nothing but superlatives.

Customer Service

Very good

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Guarneris are one of the best sounding and the most beautiful speakers on the planet.

None, actually every high-end component needs a long time break-in period.

The Guarneri speakers are for those who loves the music to be alive and realistic "they are here in the room" yes the orchestra is now in my room,with exceptional focus and body and low level musical dynamics. Guarneri is all about midrange purity, musicality,naturality,dimensionality and smoothness,there is a magnificence, emotion and soul about the music that time and time again moves your feelings. Midbass and upperbass is so accurate and tuneful that brings body to the singer and musical content. Bass is very good within its physical limitation. The speakers needs at least 200 to 300 hours of break-in period time and even the more is the better. A very good amp like PATHOS INPOL2 makes a huge and large soundstage that is very smooth and warm, open and dimensional.

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Very expensive and very large speakers from the most famous speaker makers in the world.

Safe investment! Excel whith classical and specialy with vocals (wich by the way is the best sound we can identify and so criticise) The most beautifull standmount speakers in the world !

They play with allmost anything you give them! But realy very dificult (and expensive too) to drive them properly !

Sorry for my English! This is not exactly a tipycal review but something that I have to say after been reading all these reviews for the last year or two and find some shamefull revies (just 2 or 3 but ... they deserv an answer)! First off all, we all must agree that we can´t drive a Ferrari with 15´´ whells and tyres taken from a Fiat... So YES they do need the best gear/equipment you can give to them! But that is not a weakness its an obvious conclusion ! Do you expect to pay 10.000$ and play them with an integrated from sanyo (a good brand by the way, just an example). The speakers are the only think that I could not ever change again since 1999 when I purchased them, because I´ve never again found anything better or even close to them, and that the best way to describe their impact on a system ! They are the best (big) monitors I´ve ever heard, Yes I´ve heard Floorstandig Full Range Speakers (downside 20Hz by stereophile standards)that I would love to own but they are not better , they are different we cant compare them , no mater how much money you have to spend when it comes to high-end/exoteric speakers they are not better or worth they´re just different. And believe me if you whant to have a similar expirience with a floorstanding as you have with the Guarneri´s expect to pay no less than 50.000Euros... something like a Wilson Alexandria would fit just fine for anyone who likes Classical and Rock at the same time (not for me) The big isue is that they do need a lot of amplification not in power but in high-current, they need the best Plinius, Krell, Mark Levinson, Gamut or stuff like this .. because despite their lovely inofensive look they realy are power-amp-killers a friend of mine once heard them with two Audio Note Monoblocks costing 150.000 Euros each ... and he is still Working like a dog and saving money tho have that experience again but in is house instead of a showroom ! I´m not that crazy ... but I can see the point So for all off you audiophiles and enthusiast or casual listner who say the Guarneri do not have bass (probably you mistake boom with bass).. please first buy the adequate tyres than properly mount them and than drive the bloody Ferrari ...and in the end if you realy feel that You can say "TO DAM SLOW FOR ME ! " ... and maybe some one will believe you ! ... there are mad people everywhere !

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Sonus Faber Extrema, AE ONE, Wilson WattPuppy, B&W Nautilus, Dynaudio Evidence

makes music to come alive. humanity. very beautiful looks.

none.

the guarneris have a natural, relaxed and sexy sound that impress with its romantic elegance ,a kind of rich textured and emotional sound that people can listen to hour after hour without fatigue. it is what people commonly refer to as `smooth` or `classic and warm`. it is an engaging and sophisticated sound that has`vibrancy`and`glow` to it that really holds your interest,where as B&W and WILSON have more slam and resolution but somewhat at the expense of that glow. the guarneris are like fine acoustical instruments ,where as B&w and wilson and many others are more like fine electronic musical instruments . thus like acoustical instruments, guarneris can not play as loudly as electronic instruments. it dose not need to be played loud indeed,whisper quiet to roar , soft to hard are very natural, expressive and colorful ,there is a reverberant richness to the music that is live and realistic which is very hard to explain. the guarneris mates well with just about any amplifire ,they have an easy load(minimum 6ohms) and good sensitivity(88db). for the works like heavy rocks, metals and heavily synthesized musics ,there are always speakers like: JBL , ALTEC LANSING, BOSE, CERWIN-VEGA, and many many others. but dont have the impression that guarneri can not play these musics.

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Looks beautiful and portray string instrument superbly! built quality.

Expensive, difficult to set up, only sound decent with very expensive Hi-End equipment, not suitable for rock, dance or anything electronic. Not childern friendly, acquired taste only!

The Sonus Faber Guarneri is one of the most beautiful looking pair of speakers in the planet. It is also one of the most difficult, extremely fussy speakers to drive and set up! If you have mid-fi equipment likes of Arcam, Musical Fidelity, Marantz, Naim, & etc forget about it! It only starts sounding decent when matched with very expensive hi-end equipment likes of Krell, Mark Levinson , quality tube amps and decent cables preferably pure silver! I am not joking about how difficult they are to set up! I mean if you move them 1 cm to the left or right or angle them a few degree forward or backward and they sound awful! You must seat on the hot spot, dead centre to listen them properly! It works better in a small/medium size room and how do they sound? Imaging is very good similar to the classic BBC Ls35a mini monitor, with good treble and midband but no BASS! Transparency is good and timbre is lifelike Infact I prefer the BBC Ls35a voicing of vocals, sounding more natural and lifelike. The Guarneri excels in portraying acoustic string instruments, must be high quality audiophile recording preferably light Jazz, vocals, violins, classical but not full symphony or anything too complex If you like rock/dance or anything-electronic music, they are not suitable! They sound so odd and distance when playing the likes of Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Massive Attack, Kraftwerk, Dido&etc. My conclusion is the Guarneri is definitely not an all rounder type of speaker that you can throw any type of music at it. It sounds great with simple acoustic music preferably STRINGS / VOCALS and the recording must be of audiophile quality! The sound is of an acquired taste so listen first before buying! I would accurately describe the Sonus Faber Guarneri as a very expensive Italian modified version of the classic BBC Ls35a mini monitor, difficult to set up and very particular with equipment (HI-END ONLY) but looks a million dollar! Warning! They are definitely not children friendly!

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Craftmanship, musicality, fidelity, sense of emotion. The highest satisfaction factor.

None, as such. They can't give the bottom octave but the quality of bass on offer is such that you don't miss it. Add a sub woofer for the real lows.

So much praise has been written of the Guarneris that I can only add my voice to it all. These speakers replaced a 5 channel HT system (all Meridian and outstandingly good)because I was looking for greater musicality, accuracy and an overall feeling of "this is it". I've got it. As Sonus Faber intended and others have said, these are not just speakers, they are musical instruments in their own right. Now, in listening to symphonies, concertos and sonatas, I get that fantastic sensation of the instruments sounding just right. Different instruments played by different pianists in different accoustic surroundings now show their own character and qualities. Also, I no longer have that "itch" saying that "something is missing" or "that shouldn't be there". The Guarneris offer what is there. They don't add and they don't take away. They do polish the experience and, above all, they open up the emotion of the original performance. It's not just with classical music, either. Johnny Cash has a voice of real character. Early on, it had depth, smoothness and strength. It provided a window to the sadness, humour, spirituality and pain of his outlook. In his last works, the American iv recordings, the voice had aged but through it came an enhanced integrity and philosophy. The guitar and piano in "The man comes around" are arresting. They convey strength and command attention - it's like looking at a huge exclamation mark. The Guarneris provide such a window into that. They may not have all the "slam" and "attack" that can make some rock come alive but, in my experience, the speakers that do are tough to live with long term. Their outstanding capability is in the mid range which, after all, is where all voices are and the majority of music is. They show Led Zeppelin off brilliantly - it's exciting and insightful at the same time. You get space around Plant's voice and air and clarity in Page's playing. The thinking behind Bonham's solos is clear and, in 30 years of listening to them, I've never heard it better. Modern sound from the likes of Left Field or the sound track from Matrix 1 needs a sub woofer, as does organ music. I use a B&W ASW850 which is a hangover from my earlier HT system and is too much for my current room but it provides all of the bottom octave with speed and clarity. The wife acceptance factor is very high. She could hear their quality immediately. The craftmanship in them is incredible. Have a read on the SF site of how they are made. Owning them feels like owning a 19th century work of art. The fianl thing to say is about the disappearing trick that they perform. The sounstage is so vivid that we get a really strong sensation of the Guarneris not being involved. somehow, they are the agent of the music being there but they don't appear to be directly involved! They're truly magical.

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Smooth and transparent. Strings, pianos and vocals are truly lifelike. Must use high end sources, I tryed 4 systems already and it seems that the tube amps gave the best sound, but I hav'ent finished testing.

none

These are tremondous speakers, they are so refined and elegant sounding, just beautiful. Piano and violin are gorgeous, also female vocals are exquisite. They are worth every penny. I purchased them to place in a home computer room 10x11. Real beauties to look at also, even my wife likes them. The music sounds so wonderful with these speakers you will want to listen to them for hours.

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B&W, wilsons, missions, nothing compares. tested with amps rotel, yba, shanling, copland, audio research (so far audio research sounded the nicest)

Very musical, natural, open sounding, cohesion, music just flows out of the Guarneri. No listening fatique at all.

Not enough bass for some. Easily cured with a Rel sub while retaining all the midrange magic.

Now that I have owned the Guarneri for over a year I feel fully qualified to review these speakers, again. The Guarneri still impress me with the musicality and tone they produce. The midrange is truly wonderful on the Guarneri. I am contemplating adding a Rel sub only because for very large orchestral pieces they do fall short on the bottom end. I would rather add a sub instead of going to a floor standing speaker and loosing that perfect midrange. Large speakers never sound as good to me, too boxed in sounding generally speaking. If you listen to classical and jazz, look no further. For rock n'roll they come up a little short but are still very enjoyable. I love these speakers and will never part with them. Guarneri are a no brainer.

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Natural sounding, harmonically pure. Also all that audiophile nonsense we talk about (musical, soundstage, imaging, transparent, etc). This may be the FINAL speaker purchase I ever make!

Good quality but limited quantity of bass. It is a mini-monitor after all

First off, this hobby of ours is tremendous fun. I started with a yamaha receiver, realistic (yeah that's radio shack) speakers and cd player - and the rest is history. My wife has been very patient with me, but lately even she appreciates the sheer beauty of the music in our home. It's not until I purchased these speakers that I felt any sort of real satisfaction in my system. That's not to say I was a complete sufferer of audiophilia nervosa before, I have truly enjoyed my system all along, but I never felt like it was as natural sounding as I thought it could be, until now! My previous speakers havs included: various Kef's, thiel's, dynaudio, proac and B&W. Of these, i think the proacs were the closest to reality. Then based solely on reviews here and elsewhere (you will not likely find these limited production gems in any store in the US), I bought my first mini-monitor, the Guarneri. I can not overstate how beautiful this thing looks and sounds. We all get off on terms like, imaging, soundstaging, neutral, musical, dynamic, airy and such - but the most important (and usually neglected) attribute ANY peice of audio gear shoudl possess is NATURALNESS, which this speaker delivers better than any other I have ever listened to (including in-store listening). Horns sound like real horns, guitars, pianos and voices are startlingly real - more like they sound on good electrostatic speakers. These may not rock as well as others, but they certainly rock/boggie enough for those rocking moments, and there are many in my home, Im not a clasical music-only kind of guy. Jazz ensambles are to die for, and even the over-cooked recordings sound more listenable. As others have said here, it's a musical speaker. Bottom line. If you run into one of these in audiogon, ebay or wherever, do yourself a favor and just BUY THEM. You will not be dissapointed, and if one day you decide you need/want more bass, just add a REL subwoofer. Also, when all else is equal (and I doubt many other speakers provide this kind of perfromance in this price range), then LOOKS do matter, and this thing, on its stand is truly a thing of BEAUTY! My system: Amp: Ayre V-5x; Source: Levinson 390S (i kept it); Preamp: Ayre K-1xe; Cables: Cardas Golden Reference all around. Other: PS AUDIO P300 Power plant on the source and pre

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thiel, dynaudio, proac, b&W, KEF

Quality of build, looks, and sweet, rich, smooth sound. Makes my old crappy CD's sound great. Most musical speaker Ive heard in my life.

Well, none really. They arehard to find and a bit pricey, but so is buying and selling speakers you are unhappy with. Buy these and you will keep 'em. BUT give them quality amplification.

Well. In teh past 4 years I have owned NUMEROUS audio setups. Always seraching for the best sound. It was hard to find over the years, but I believe I just found it n the Guarneri's. In the past 2 years alone I have owned Revel Studios, Avantgarde Unos, B&W 802's, Sonus faber Cremona and Signum as well as Moniter Audio GR60's. The best of the above sound wise were the Avantgarde Unos, GR60's and SF Signum. I have been buying and selling speakers for the past 3 months as a business and have had a chance to compare, side by side many models. I found the Guarneri's on Audiogon and the guy selling them was in Italy. He shipped FedEx and they arrived within 6 days, BUT FedEx damaged one of the stands (long story, so Ill spare you the details) - The stand is still usable but busted, so I do have my speakers set up. 1st thing I thought was that they sounded a little muffled, but after listening for 3 minutes, I realized that this was music as it was meant to be heard. After being used to the Anylitical speakers such as the Studios and B&w's I found the G's to have a relaxed, sweet, rich sound that sucks you in. Before I knew it I was on the couch listening to CD after CD. The cool pary is that all of my old BAD sounding CD's now sounded great. There is NO harshness with these speakers AT ALL. No compression, nothing digital sounding. I am using a Sony SCD-1 with an Audiomeca DAC for redbook and the SCD-1 for SACD. I have them hooked up to a Mcintosh MC2200 tube preamp and a Mcintosh MC602 (overkill I know) amp. I thought the 602 would make these soundbad, but they sound amazing, even with this 600 watt powerhouse. The Guarneri's are beautiful to look at and the sound is simply the most musical Ive heard. They are bigger than they look in pictures. They fill my room with sound and sweet details. I will never sell these. They are destined to become a collecters item and they are very hard to find on the used market and nearly impossible to get new if you are in the USA. After hearing these, it makes me want to buy a pair of the Amati's as well, but my house is not big enough! Once I get my broken stand replaced (and this is proving to not be too easy) Ill be one happy audiophile. I picked up ap air fo Revel Studios yesterday, used for resale. I took them out and compared them to the Guarneri's. Sure the Studios had a HUGE big slamming sound but they were bright, and overly clinical. Athigh volumes they made my ears hurt. I packed them back up and sold them. The Guarneri's may not have super low deep thumping bass, but they sound totally natural, and they do have bass good enough for me to feel it while on my couch. Its just not boomy. Its right. PLUS, disregard some posts saying these are NOT good for rock. Last night I was jamming KISS, WASP as well as Johnny Cash, Allison Krauss, Diana Krall, Tori Amos, Bo Diddley, Cowboy Junkies andmore. It did GREAT with all of it. My musical tatses vary. I like almost all styles of music. I have no disapointments with my Guarneri's!

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Revel Studios, M20's, Avantgarde Uno's, B&W 802, Moniter Audio GR60's, GR20's, Sonus faber Cremona, Sonus faber Signum. Countless others.